2:00PM Water Cooler 7/25/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Patient readers, there is a lot of political material to process today, some of which* I still need to sit and think about, so please check back. –lambert NOTE Roughly, how organic was Kamala’s fundraising from small donors; is it fair to characterize recent events, if we may call them that, as a “coup”; Kamala’s 100 days; and less thought-provoking topics, like the VP search and the youth vote. To come!!

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Santa Fe Dam Rec. Area, Los Angeles, California, United States. Only forty seconds but there’s a lot going on!

In Case You Might Miss…

(1) Biden’s post-defenestration speech.

(2) Litmus tests for Kamala (Palestine, anti-trust).

(3) Trad wives.

(4) Employee ownership.

Politics

“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

2024

Less than four months to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Virginia and North Carolina added to the list. NC was never going for Biden Harris, but Virginia? Yikes!

* * *

Biden Defenestration:

“Transcript: Biden’s speech explaining why he withdrew from the 2024 presidential race” [Associated Press]. Biden: “You know, in recent weeks it’s become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy, and that includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life, but there’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices, and that time and place is now.” • So this is all the explanation we’re going to get. “Recent weeks” contradicts the narrative that Biden’s decision was made quickly over the weekend when aides Ricchetti and Donilon showed him polling data. Given that Biden’s defenestration was carried out by Tweet without informing staff, I’m not buying “in recent weeks.” I think Biden’s decision was made quickly under pressure. Oh, and Kamala is younger only notionally; she doesn’t code as 59, surely. And she’s neither a new nor fresh voice. Assuming one leaves the sound up.

“July 24, 2024” [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]. I’ve never been able to bring myself to read Richardson, and now I see why. Endless exposition of Biden’s words without value add, but concluding piously but “without evidence,” as we say: “Like [Washington and Adams], Biden gave up the pursuit of power for himself in order to demonstrate the importance of democracy.” And a teensy bit if reporting, albeit unsourced: “After the speech, the White House served ice cream to the Bidens and hundreds of White House staffers in the Rose Garden.” • I wonder if the ice cream came from Pelosi’s fridge.

* * *

The Campaign Trail:

* * *

Harris (D), litmus test: Palestine:

Read my full statement on the protests in Washington, D.C. yesterday. pic.twitter.com/zJpZvdQDt9

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 25, 2024

Harris (D), litmus test: Anti-trust:

Donor or owner? LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman thinks he owns Kamala Harris. Imagine giving $7 million and then publicly demanding a total reversal of tough on corporate crime policies. Harris took the money, she needs to repudiate this. https://t.co/dqPldxMH4R

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 25, 2024

I don’t say Harris can’t be bought, but I don’t think Hoffman quite understands where the decimal point would need to be.

More:

One hopes, anyhow!

— Basel Musharbash (@musharbash_b) July 25, 2024

Indeed one does.

Democrats en Déshabillé

“Newsom To Order Dismantling Of CA Homeless Encampments” [Banning-Beaumont Patch]. “Gov. Gavin Newsom will order state officials on Thursday to dismantle homeless encampments with a sweeping executive order, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, the New York Times reported. The order comes in response to the June Supreme Court ruling allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces…. According to the Times, the executive order represents the nation’s most sweeping response to the ruling. Roughly 180,000 people are unhoused in California…. LA County is the nation’s most populous, with about 10 million people. More than 1 in 5 of all homeless people in the U.S. live in the county, according to The Associated Press.” • You can bet Newsom checked with Kamala first, too. Cleaning up California’s image, and all.

Syndemics

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Celebrity Watch

Tedros sends Olympians to illness and death:

No, @DrTedros, these @WHO recommendations will NOT “make sure these Games are healthy and safe for everyone involved”.

They will not prevent superspreading events, as measures against airborne transmission (ventilation, respirators) are only recommended for people with symptoms. https://t.co/OOaWPhtQMm pic.twitter.com/eMyCeHHdjs

— Maarten De Cock (@mdc_martinus) July 25, 2024

Masking and ventilation recommended only after symptoms appear. But handwashing is always appropriate!

Lambert here: Looks like the holiday travel dumped accelerant on the pre-existing surge; see especially the growth in wastewater “hot spots.” Stay safe out there!

Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US fell by 10,000 to 235,000 on the period ending July 20th, below market expectations of 238,000. Despite this decline, the claim count remained significantly above this year’s average, indicating that although the US labor market is still historically tight, it has softened since its post-pandemic [sic] peak.”

GDP: “United States GDP Growth Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The US economy expanded an annualized 2.8% in Q2, up from 1.4% in Q1, and above forecasts of 2%, the advance estimate showed.”

Manufacturing: “United States Durable Goods Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for manufactured durable goods in the US slumped 6.6% month-over-month in June 2024, after four consecutive monthly increases and missing market expectations of a 0.3% increase.”

Tech: “Alexa Is in Millions of Households—and Amazon Is Losing Billions” [Wall Street Journal]. “Amazon.com’s Echo speakers are the type of business success companies don’t want: a widely purchased product that is also a giant money loser. Chief Executive Andy Jassy is trying to plug that hole—and move away from the Amazon accounting tactic that helped create it. When Amazon launched the Echo smart home devices with its Alexa voice assistant in 2014, it pulled a page from shaving giant Gillette’s classic playbook: sell the razors for a pittance in the hope of making heaps of money on purchases of the refill blades. A decade later, the payoff for Echo hasn’t arrived. While hundreds of millions of customers have Alexa-enabled devices, the idea that people would spend meaningful amounts of money to buy goods on Amazon by talking to the iconic voice assistant on the underpriced speakers didn’t take off. Customers actually used Echo mostly for free apps such as setting alarms and checking the weather. ‘We worried we’ve hired 10,000 people and we’ve built a smart timer,’ said a former senior employee. As a result, Amazon has lost tens of billions of dollars on its devices business, which includes Echos and other products such as Kindles, Fire TV Sticks and video doorbells, according to internal documents and people familiar with the business. Between 2017 and 2021, Amazon had more than $25 billion in losses from its devices business, according to the documents. The losses for the years before and after that period couldn’t be determined.” • That’s a damn shame.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 45 Neutral (previous close: 41 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 53 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 24 at 12:37:17 PM ET.

Zeitgeist Watch

“Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’ (and her eight children)” [The Times]. “Trad wives are an internet phenomenon; women who have rejected modern gender roles for the more traditional existence of wife, mother and homemaker — and who then promote that life online, some to millions of followers. Their lifestyle is often, though not always, bound to Christianity. They film themselves cooking mad things from scratch (chewing gum from corn syrup, waffles from a sourdough starter), their faces glowing in beams of sunlight, their voices soft and breathy, their children free range.” • Worth reading in full.

“Fossil Hints That Jurassic Mammals Lived Slow and Died Old” [New York Times]. “The extended time frame for tooth replacement, along with the older Krusatodon’s age, led the team to conclude that these ancient mammals enjoyed surprisingly long life spans. This most likely extended their growth period. Most modern mammals experience rapid growth early in life before plateauing as they approach adult size. Krusatodon and other early Mesozoic mammals may have slowly grown throughout their long lives…. Determining when the mammalian growth process sped up is difficult. Dr. Panciroli thinks development was most likely turbocharged as mammals’ metabolism increased, and as they became warm-blooded. These traits would emerge later in the Mesozoic Era and help early mammals adopt more energetically demanding lifestyles that included swimming and gliding.” • Sounds like I’d prefer to be a Jurassic Mammal; I don’t glide, and the closest I’ve gotten to swimming is buying a bathing suit (and maybe I should reconsider).

Class Warfare

The Elysian]. “There are 47 millionaires working for Central States Manufacturing, and they’re not all in the C-Suite. Many of them are drivers or machinists—blue-collar workers for the company. How? The company is owned by its employees. Every worker gets a salary but also a percentage of their salary in stock ownership. When the company does well, so do the employees—all of them, not just the ones at the top. And the company is doing well. ‘When we sat down eight years ago, we said we want to be a billion-dollar company and have 1,500 people, we are on track to be both of those this year,’ Tim Ruger, president of Central States, tells me. That’s right, this manufacturing company will become a unicorn this year—one of only 6,000 companies in the world earning more than $1 billion in revenue. But unlike Walmart, Amazon, and Apple, it’s not just the executives getting paid out. ‘It’s not like 80 percent of the company is owned by management and the rest is owned by employees, it’s really well spread across all functions,’ Ruger tells me. ‘We’ve got a number of people that have been here 15, 20 years and they have $1 million plus balances, which is really cool for a person that came out of high school and runs our rollformer. You can’t do that everywhere.’” • Do we have any readers who are familiar with Central States Manufacturing? The name sounds so generic, like “The Great Lakes Paperclip Company”:

“Microsoft’s ‘World of Warcraft’ Gaming Staff Votes to Unionize” [Bloomberg].

“It turns out a lot of return-to-office mandates were meant to make workers quit” [Quartz]. “A quarter of bosses admitted that they hoped return-to-office (RTO) mandates would lead to employees quitting, according to a new survey…. That expectation isn’t totally unfounded. Twenty-eight percent of remote employees said they’d consider quitting their jobs if RTO policies occurred at their companies. But it appears fewer quit than the bosses wanted. Some executives even blamed layoffs on employees who didn’t quit after RTO policies were put in place, Bamboo said. Almost two in five (37%) of managers, directors, and executives said their companies had layoffs in the last 12 months because they anticipated that more employees would quit after enacting RTO policies.”

News of the Wired

“Scientists Recreate Neanderthal Cooking Methods and the Results Are Eye-Opening” [ZME Science]. “To learn more about how our extinct relatives prepared bird-based meals, researchers in Spain tried cooking like Neanderthals using only tools and methods that would have been available in prehistoric times…. ‘Using a flint flake for butchering required significant precision and effort, which we had not fully valued before this experiment,’ said Mariana Nabais of the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social in Spain, lead author of the new study. ‘The flakes were sharper than we initially thought, requiring careful handling to make precise cuts without injuring our own fingers. These hands-on experiments emphasized the practical challenges involved in Neanderthal food processing and cooking, providing a tangible connection to their daily life and survival strategies.’”

Yum:

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Desert Dog:

Desert Dog writes: “Always wonderful to come across these hiding out on the range and welcoming spring weather.”

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